Twisted Invasion
by Necrofuckup
Summary: Just because they failed once doesn’t mean they won’t stop trying. The Nightmares want out.
1. The Land Inside the Skull

TwistedInvasion.

by

Necrofuckup

-

Summary: Just because they failed once doesn't mean they won't stop trying. The Nightmares want out.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

-

Chapter 1: The land inside the skull.

It was about eleven o'clock and Dib yawned. He'd been watching his computer monitor all Saturday and it was Sunday. He should have gone to bed by now, but, despite seeing Zim do nothing much at all other than play with Gir on a board game yesterday, nothing had happened worth noting, and Dib really hoped Zim would just stick a piece of paper up to the hidden spying equipment with his next evil plan on it. Alas, this never happened, and at quarter to twelve, He decided he should go to sleep. He shut off his computer, brushed his teeth, (he'd been living off sugary snacks the past two days) put on his pyjamas and got into bed. As soon as his large head hit the soft pillow he was asleep.

The camera slowly pans into the middle of a sleeping boy's forehead and fades into black. A bright purple flash explodes and the camera zooms faster and faster down onto a sphere, covered in dark blue and purple clouds. Faster and faster, it flies through the burning black atmosphere, past dark sulphurous clouds, onto an erroneous continent made of fused rock and metal. Closer and closer the camera sees broken cities, disturbing towns and zooms further into one twisted place, made of contorted buildings, houses and towers. Closer, zooming along one bent and crooked road, the camera slows suddenly and pans up from the dirt and seemingly organic concrete, up to a nasty, cruel yet strangely different 'house'. The other's surrounding it in this cul-de-sac are dark purples, blacks and blues in colour. This one is green.

The camera pans up to a tall, tortuous dirty blue door and goes through it to the interior of the building. Broken metal wires, destroyed monitors, pictures of gruesome green monkeys and organs litter the floors, walls and ceilings. The camera speeds up and delves into the floor revealing a hive of transport tunnels and spiked cube rooms. The camera finds the largest one among it's smaller offspring and tunnels into it. It is dark except for on magenta spotlight in the middle, showing a hunched figure in a dark hooded robe, sitting on a seat made of claws, talons, skin and metal pipes. At the bottom of the 'chair' sleeps a large feral mutated green wolf, with a strange black marking on it's back. In front of the figure is a hanging monitor. It watches with it's blood red eyes as the creature known as Bitters fails it's attempt to escape from this world, this world inside of a child's head. Nightmare World.

A clicking is heard from the figure, then small fits of croaking laughter as the camera zooms away from this dark place, faster than ever as if it is being sucked back from the way it came, and with a brief flash of purple light, the camera slows as it pans away from a sleeping boy with raven hair.

_Chapter end._

I hope the whole 'camera' view point made sense.


	2. The Last Day of October

Chapter 2:

The Last day of October.

Wherein Dib decides to enjoy himself for once, Zim is scared, Gaz isannoyed and the Nightmares stir.

-

AN: when I was writing the last chapter it seemed longer, eh, this one will be.

-

When Dib awoke he followed his usual routine of shower, teeth, clothes etc, turn on computer, until he looked at his calendar (a free gift from crop circles monthly) and realized what day it was.

October 31st. He thought back to two years ago. He remembered every horrible detail. The darkness, those hideous figures, their sick plan to march an entire dark horde through his head. That weird creature, that… thing that was supposed to be a version of himself. He shuddered. He thought about what it said, what that psychotic nightmarish copy had said, it was all in his head. They wanted to get out from this place they had destroyed, and now they all wanted to get into this world. All in his head. In his head. Dib reached up and felt his scalp,

"it's not big" he said in a quiet, thoughtful voice. He didn't think it was _that_ big, but everyone else said so, and there _was_ a whole other universe in there. 'Surely though it must be a paranormal anomaly, a portal or something that uses the space my head uses as gateway point…. Or something.' He had thought all that time ago when he had tried to make sense of it. He couldn't talk to someone about it, and eventually he had gotten on with his life. But every now and then, when it was stormy and at night when he was trying to go to sleep, the shadows would dance and he would swear that out of the corners of his eyes nightmarish silhouettes would dare to get closer, but he would then look, and see it was nothing but a shadow.

He thought back to last year, he had spent the whole night hiding under his covers, hoping nothing would happen, hoping they would leave his head be, hoping that a beam of light would _not_ all of a sudden pop out of his head and an army would not walk out of his skull. When he woke up the day after, he was fine, the world was not destroyed and everything was normal. He still felt scared, but he vowed that next year, the present year, he would forget about it, and for once, enjoy a holiday where he was allowed to steal candy legally.

One problem. He didn't have a costume. Well, it was Saturday, so he had all day to work on it, and he would go trick or treating even if he had to go alone. Tonight he would enjoy himself, no matter what.

-

Zim sat patiently in front of a large monitor, with nothing on it but an Irken insignia and a message reading 'please wait one moment, your call means a lot to us and we would appreciate it if you held the line.' He'd been waiting for hours now. He'd called the Tallest to report to them about this Halloween phenomena, (after the last two years, it seemed less disturbing and decided the Tallest _should_ know about it.) This year however, he had reached them and they had jumped off-screen, then there was mumbling and before Zim said anything they put him on hold. Another hour later and Zim got angry.

"Where are they!?" He shouted abruptly while standing on the console. He started pacing back and forth, still on top of the keyboard of his large computer.

"I saw them, they were there, and then they jumped out of view…." He said matter of factly. He stopped. Realisation dawned.

"Maybe they…. Don't like my reports… maybe they…. Don't want to know about Earth and the humans' disgusting rituals….. NEVER!" he screamed as he jumped down onto the floor.

"They love my reports. Huh… they must be…. being attacked by an inferior species, that's why they put me on hold, everybody loves Zim's reports!" He said triumphantly, dismissing all doubts of his Tallest's trust in him. He thought for a bit, and decided he'd call again later. He switched off the monitor and walked over to an tube lift. He stopped before he got there.

The world turned black, then purple, then blue, then black again and he felt so cold. He saw something green and largely dog-like run around the room, then disappear. He closed his eyes shut, squeezed them shut until he saw flying spots and colour, and all at once he was warm again, and when the offending visual display of his eyes faded, he was back in his magenta and metal colour schemed room. Mouth open, he spun around, then again, and again, making sure that whatever the large creature he thought he saw was not here. The sound he had heard in that two second long…place, stayed with him. Clicking, then a dirty low guttural laughing.

Zim then felt very small, smaller than ever, and wanted to get out of this one room, at least until he regained his confidence. He ran to the lift and when he was back in his kitchen, he said,

"Maybe I will….. call tomorrow."

-

"Stupid Halloween…. stupid skool….. stupid dad…. stupid Dib" every time she said something she kicked the wall next to her bed, which she was laying on. She was angry. Her father had promised, since last year, that he would go trick or treating with her. (He had also meant Dib, but she figured he wouldn't come) and now he broke that promise, saying that the testing creature was going nova, or some such excuse, and he couldn't possibly go with her. She didn't mind missing the candy, but her father was so rarely actually near her, whenever they did meet was something to be happy about. But now, she was very angry. Added with her father breaking his word, she had a ton of homework to catch up on, her Game Slave AK was confiscated by a teacher and she now had Dib asking her to help with a costume.

So now, she had nothing to do, Dib _was_ going trick or treating and her father was a no show. This day was ruined. And so she was, at the moment, taking it out on the wall, which had a very large hole in it. She decided she should take it out on Dib too, everything was his fault.

-

In the dark, Nightmare Bitters, in her original form, was covered in chains, metal, and organs and was stuck to a wall in the weirdest of houses in this world. A tall robed figure walked in through a rusted door, followed by a big green wolf.

She lifted her head, the only movable part, and looked into the blood red eyes of her captor. It clicked at her. Then laughed a dry little chuckle at her. It lifted an arm, revealing a black-gloved, long, thin clawed hand, and caressed her dry rocky cheek.

"You failed Bitters."

"You didn't see their world. We assumed it was-" She was cut off by a sharp and blood drawing slap, which left gashes along her face. She snarled and tried to bite the thing, not an inch from her face. The figure stayed at such a close range, but grabbed her head, thrust it up and said, in a whisper,

"No excuse." It looked away, erratically, almost like it disliked paining her, "we starve here. And you failed. There's nothing here, and you failed. If there is nothing for me to destroy, then I fail. I cannot fail. My mission demands perfection. You failed. On my planet, failure is to be punished by death." He slowly raised his other limb and, caressingthe splintered skin on her thin neck, snapped it.

Her head fell limp, and the figure clicked, then left. The green wolf followed, growling mechanically.

-

_Chapter end._

Better?


	3. Prepare for Things

Chapter 3: Prepare for Things.

Wherein there is an idea of things, Gaz thinks of things, Zim thinks of things and the Way Things are seen through the eyes of a large headed boy.

-

AN: say 'things' ten more times.

-

Dib was stuck. He'd gotten out some paper, a pencil and put on a CD of his favourite band. But nothing came. Not a shred of inspiration. If he couldn't think up anything _good_ to go as for Halloween, there was no point of going. The creative side of this sugary holiday always held some interest in his mind, and he had, when he was younger, secretly filled whole sketchpads full of drawings of what he could go as. Those were thrown away years ago though, and now he couldn't remember anything from them, and he wanted something really good. Every time he tried to put an idea down onto paper, it seemed really crappy. Nothing seemed good enough. Nothing was working, and he didn't have long. It was twelve in the morning, and he wanted to have started by now.

"Damn it, what can I go as!?" He said testily. He ran his hand through his hair, looked up at the posters on his ceiling and looked out the window. A bird flew by.

"Grh." He growled. This was stupid! He was a master at this, with his paranormal knowledge he should be able to come up with a costume that would outshine all the other kid's costumes by far.

"Perhaps I'm thinking too hard….. Sigh…. Right… think…. Think… pick something paranormal…." He said with eyes closed, trying to delve into his own brain…

Something flashed bright purple. Then there was darkness. It clicked.

"Wh-" He fell back off his chair in his room and stared at the ceiling. What was that? Then all of a sudden the thought of Zim came into his head. And the more he thought about it, the better it sounded. It wouldn't be better, per se, than the other kid's attires, but it _was_ original, in a way. A large smile found itself on Dib's face, and the idea got bigger and bigger. The best part of it was that this outfit would be comparatively very quick to make.

"Yeah…. Why not? All I need is some green face paint, some tinted lenses… a shirt…some fake antennae… heh… easy!" He said eagerly. It would be _so_ funny trying to trick or treat Zim.

-

She was, once again, angry. But this time was…. Different. She felt cheated; she felt this was unfair, she felt…… sad. All her life she relied upon the belief that she was loved by at least _one_ person, her father. Her mother…. Who was she? Nobody seemed to know or care. She knew Dib could or would never love her, the way she treated him, she didn't feel remorse for it. But sometimes it wasn't nice to be alone. She believed her father loved her. She believed it so much she didn't mind waiting and waiting and waiting…. Then waiting some more to see the real him, when he took off his lab coat and would read to her. But that was years ago. So many years ago. Now, she was a preteen, and every time he made an excuse, or said he couldn't be there or said he had more important things to do….. It hurt. She didn't care if he got more money doing what he did than most other fathers; she wanted him here with her, this night to go trick or treating. Not Dib, who was now running around happier than she had ever seen him. She wanted to punch him just for that. That's not very nice, but it helped her to vent this feeling.

"This sucks." She said morosely, leaning against the dented wall next to her bed.

-

"It didn't make sense Gir, I saw things, they made _me,_ of all the creatures in the vastness of space, _me_ feel like a scared little smeet!" Zim spat words out at his robot, while sitting on the couch, mimicking a therapy scene. Gir sat on an armrest, nodding thoughtfully and occasionally going "mmm-hmmm…"

"But it felt familiar… in a…..way. Agh! I can't get it out of my brain, but it's…. weird!" He said "weird" with a dirty low tone. "Like I… I… had been there…. Or it was part of me…. Or it was somewhere that….Gah! I give up!" He slumped down with an angry pout.

"Hmmm. Mmmm hmmm, yeeeesssss…." Gir continued, in the role of psychologist. "Yeah, it gotta beeeee……" he faded off, his eyes slowly trailing across the ceiling. "……chocolate!" The automaton burst out. Zim raised an invisible eyebrow at him. It was true Gir wasn't quite… what you could call… functional, but the little robot _seemed_ to make sense. What was it about 'chocolate' that rang familiar in Zim's ears? Zim sat pondering, (not asking Gir for advice, his pride would never let him) about why chocolate was important on this day. Gir hummed for a moment, then unexpectedly (or expectedly for some) rocketed up and out the window, screaming something about candied corn…..

"……Hmmmmm?" Zim thoughtfully rubbed his chin, his brows going up and down while continuing to think deep and hard. He wouldn't let this thing escape him!

Eight minutes passed and Zim jumped up triumphantly, fists clenched and a maniacal smile plastered on his face.

"That's it! The Halloweenies! How could I, the Zim, fail to remember this ape-filthy day!?" He reasoned that with his odd…. Experience down in the labs earlier he had forgotten. Still, he wouldn't have admitted it. He gasped, and realised he needed to prepare the 'Mighty Wall of Irken Superiority over the Halloweenies' or the 'MWISH' for short.

"Computer!" he barked, standing as proudly tall as he could, "Prepare the MWISH defences!"

"Zim, I think you ought to know something about your defences-"

"Silence!" The small Irken screamed at the wall. "It is perfect!"

"No, Zim, it drains over half the energy from the rest of the-"the mechanical voice was cut off again,

"I designed it, it _will _work!!" He continued screaming at another wall. The computer sighed exasperatedly, and said;

"Yes Sir. Also, I have detected, before I become little more than a rambling voice for what minute software that will still run, that there is a dimensional anomaly within one room of the labs." Zim perked up a little from being angry, and suspiciously said;

"…Go on…."

"There is some kind of electromagnetic rift between two worlds, and not only have I noticed that there is one of these invisible holes in said lab room, I am picking up a moving target with the same fluxuating energy patterns not far from here, but it is much stronger." To anyone who would note this with worried interest, they would have wanted to find out more. But Zim, who despised what he didn't know, and he knew he didn't know what had happened down in that lab room, he wanted it destroyed. One was bad enough, but two? And one that was stronger? So, after thinking this, he said;

"Destroy it! It is a threat to the mission!" The computer sighed, knowing full well that this would be Zim's train of thought, and replied, dejectedly;

"Surely you should try to find out more? The Tallest _do_ happen to have an 'Alternate Universe Research Project'. The Tallest _did _actually have such a thing, but theyreally just signed documents rather than acknowledge them. The Computer was right, as always, but Zim had a _need_ to be right, and would _not_ let his computer, his slave best him. His anger blossomed greater when he realised he knew nothing of this Alternate universe project thing. Then he realised that, if there was such a project, he should be a major part of it. Anger turned quickly to fantasies of praise for conquering another galaxy. His mouth arched into a devious grin.

"Computer..." he said slowly, "on second thought, don't destroy them. Run some scans on them."

"I won't be able to if you activate the MWISH defences." It said somewhat testily.

"What!? Well then don't activate it! All power will hence be designated to this, this master project! Zim's mighty reign of doom shall crush this other universe with fury and Irken power!" Zim struck a mighty pose, legs apart and arms flailing wildly, while laughing loudly and as evilly as he could, which he was very good at.

"Yes Zim…" The computer said.

-

The tall robed figure, sitting in its nasty chair made of metal and other materials, clicked to itself, the wolf sleeping silently at the base. The figure raised its head, blood red eyes glinting dully in the purple light. It laughed and said;

"We begin now."

The two large creatures bowing before him stood up, their white armour with scary face motif which stood out against their black skin, and said simultaneously;

"Yes master…." In graveyard tones. When they turned to leave, the Paks painfully fused onto them glowed with dark purple mist. The rusty door slid shut and the figure got off the chair, the wolf getting up also without so much a hint of tiredness, and stood in the middle of the square, dark room. It held it's thin, bony, gloved clawed hands out, its body trembling; it spoke incomprehensible words, its eyes shut tight and with a groan and a series of purple flashes from the figure's Pak, a dark purple-black six foot vertical 'rip' opened in mid-air in front of him. But, as soon as the tall thin figure was forced to stop maintaining such effort, the portal closed. The figure sagged with exhaustion.

"………………Shit." It said darkly.

_Chapter end._

AN: I know, I'm confused too. And tired.


	4. Revelations

Chapter 4: Revelations

Wherein the Nightmares question, Gaz goes out, Zim researches into the problem and Dib finds that his own smile really is, rather disturbing.

-

"Where is Bitters!?" Yelled an angry creature, flailing its waif like limbs wildly.

The tall thin, robed figure sat in a small chair, looking uncomfortable, and raised its head. It noted the environment. The hall was dark blue, with pits of black at each corner. The room was large and as such, contained approximately 400… creatures. Huge arched windows adorned the east wall, and imposing doors were situated on the far back wall. The tall figure, with its green wolf growling by the figure's feet, clicked to itself, laughed and said,

"She is dead. She failed."

A huge uproar exploded from the moving being that was all of the audience. They screeched, they howled, they roared and coughed and bellowed and shouted and vomited, all in furious anger.

"What!? Why!?" A flying thin creature yelled.

"She failed!" the figure replied, malice in its voice, its hood fell back, revealing extruded and distorted features amid dark blood red wells that were its eyes. Its dirty green skin was covered in unhealthy scars and its flimsy antennae lay limp. The head looked odd attached to its body, very disproportionate. As one creature, the audience took a step back and gasped. Nightmare Zim, a creature bent on the destruction of all living beings, even it's own species, was a hate filled thing, and one thing it hated was what was in front of him; the nightmare creatures. Being here, he hated it, he hated his own kind, and when he learned of the alternate universe, he hated them. He hated having more added to his mission. Oh, his mission, how he loathed it. He hated his robot, he hated himself, and he hated being questioned. He hated being put here and forced to give questions to these filthy, disgusting piles of fecal matter.

"She was too weak! I needed for her to do her job and she failed!!" His voice dripped with malevolence and his fists clenched until his own sharp claws shoved past the black animal skin gloves and into his dark green skin. "My mission…. Is to destroy…." He decided to leave out _their_ destruction for now, "I must destroy the other universe…. I must destroy everything in that place…." This made them angry. The audience, the contorted residents of this dark world, needed that other world. They didn't care how they got it, they knew their own world was breaking up at the seams, falling apart, crumbling; even the weakest, smallest creatures were just disappearing. In the last two years, this place seemed to be breaking up, and they needed that other place more than they needed life, because the other world _was_ life. It offered newness, and a chance at staying alive. Granted they were worried when Bitters _had_ managed to get halfway through that boy's monstrously huge head, and found something so horrible that she had to turn back, run away. Bitters was their greatest leader. Now she was dead, by the hands of this…. Thing. This Invader.

"I say burn 'im!" Shouted one giant wobbling thing.

"Cut off his face and feeeeeeed it to 'da Haerngesh!" Shouted a thin pointy creature.

"Rape him up the ass and throw him out the windah!" Screamed a small headed, big toothed creature.

"_All three!!!_" Shouted the whole crowd.

Nightmare Zim clicked, laughed and said, "Before you indulge yourself in carnal desires, I give you a proposition." The masses calmed down slightly. "I have technology that is far beyond your capabilities….." He paused for effect. Smug bastard. He hated that too. "…. I can _create_ my own portals into that world of light. All I require is your co-operation and at twelve tonight we will be entering there and doing as we please." His voice was acidic, but it offered sweet dreams of life. A murmur rose from the creatures, then a loud din and eventually a huge ruckus. Nightmare Zim clicked happily to itself and knew it had won their approval already, now it was just a matter of time.

"HOW!" Shouted a high pitched gas based creature, above the noise. Nightmare Zim raised its hand and the noise stopped.

"All that will be told soon. All I need right now…is one thing." He clicked, and his body, underneath the various dirty fabrics of his robe, clicked and the sound of metal scraping, and clicking could be heard, if you were looking for it.

-

Sitting around becoming bored was just doing nothing but add kindle to her anger fire. Watching TV hadn't helped and staying in this house, with Dib running around seemingly _happy_ for once-

-_The Nightmares screamed and ran as an earthquake exploded from the ground and lightning struck random creatures_-

-Pissed Gaz off even more. Her teeth hurt now from grinding them. It was then, at around two-ish, that she couldn't just sit here any longer. She grabbed her coat and headed for the door. Also grabbing a baseball bat on the way. Dib, noticing that his sister was going out, stopped racing around the house for costume ingredients, and asked, "Uh, um, Gaz, where're you going?" He was nervous, but he had a curious mind-

-_"What was that!?" A creature said, removing rubble off of itself._

"_An Earth Seizure!" Another answered placing its leg back into the correct area. _-

-So he asked her. She replied simply, "Gotta hurt someone." Dib was happy enough knowing it wasn't him.

-

"Tell me Computer, what have you found about these….." He twitched nervously making grunting noises, "…. Portals of evil?"

"I have been analysing the rifts between universes for some time now, but the only data I can extricate from the anomaly is that the infrequent bursts of sub-space found earlier down in the Communications room 3B are being manipulated by a host _from_ that other world, but they are more directly connected to the other, larger source found not far from here. For further research, you will need to find that other source."

Zim thought for a moment and said, "Where exactly _is_ this other source?"

"Co-ordinates being printed off." A metal arm descended from the ceiling and gave Zim a sheet of paper, with Irken writing and numbers plastered over it, barely a space within the whole text. Not one for reading as it took too long, Zim shouted upwards, "I don't have time to read this, just _tell_ me where it is!"

The Computer sighed and said, "Just a few blocks away lives the Human specimen 001, also known as Dib. The larger, more powerful source originates from his brain patterns. Finding the Human and bringing him here will allow me to run scans on him." The Computer wanted to add 'Can you do that Zim? Can you do that?' In the most patronizing tone a virtual personality could muster. But he didn't. He just waited for confirmation from his tiny master.

Zim's eyes narrowed and he ground his jagged teeth, his fists clenched and after a moment of standing not doing much, Zim said, "The Dib. Oh how I loathe that worm…. Very well! I shall capture him and his revoltingly huge head and then I will know all there is to know about that…. Place…"

What Zim didn't realise, or perhaps remember, or even _want _to remember, was that the place that had disturbed him so, was somewhere he'd already been.

-

Dib looked at himself in the mirror. It was incredible. It was like Zim was staring at him, wearing glasses. He tried not wearing them but then he fell down the stairs. But now he was looking at himself, ready to go out with a trick or treating bag, and try to obtain as much candy and snacks as possible. He saw everything red wearing tinted lenses. 'Funny' he thought 'so this is how Zim sees stuff'. His showing skin was painted green and he taped his ears down and painted over them too. To deal with his hair, he had got a swimming hat (which was very painful trying to get onto his head, maybe it was big.) and after tucking his hair in, painted that too. He made a pair of antennae and stuck those on top. The only thing that he had to do after that was the clothes. He was already wearing black boots and pants, but he needed a magenta shirt with lines across it. For the first time in his life, he stole a shirt from his sister's room and with a marker added the lines. A pair of gloves, a decorated rucksack made to look like Zim's Pak and makeshift shoulder pads later, he had become the enemy. He looked at himself in the mirror and smiled. It ran from the left ear to the right and it showed his teeth (which weren't like Zim's but it didn't matter) and despite being happy about how wonderful his costume looked, he was a little disturbed by his reflection.

"Tonight's gonna be great for once, I can feel it." He said happily.

-

_Chapter end_

AN: I sucked at science classes so if any of the Computer's portal/alternate universe stuff that he says sounds crappy then I apologise.


End file.
